How to Set Up 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound in OBS

Setting up 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound in OBS Studio allows you to capture and broadcast immersive multi-channel audio for your livestreams and video recordings. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure your Windows audio settings, adjust the channel properties within OBS Studio, and set up your encoder to properly output spatial audio.

Step 1: Configure Windows Sound Settings

Before OBS can capture surround sound, your operating system must be configured to output multi-channel audio.

  1. Press the Windows Key + R, type mmsys.cpl, and press Enter to open the Sound Control Panel.
  2. Under the Playback tab, right-click your primary audio device (e.g., your headphones or speakers) and select Configure Speakers.
  3. Select 5.1 Surround or 7.1 Surround from the list.
  4. Click Next, follow the on-screen prompts to test your speakers, and click Finish.

Step 2: Change Audio Channels in OBS Studio

Once your system is outputting surround sound, you must configure OBS Studio to receive and process these extra audio channels.

  1. Open OBS Studio.
  2. Click on Settings in the bottom-right corner (or go to File > Settings).
  3. Select the Audio tab from the left sidebar.
  4. Locate the General section and find the Channels dropdown menu.
  5. Change the setting from Stereo to either 5.1 or 7.1 to match your system configuration.
  6. Click Apply and then OK.
  7. Restart OBS Studio to apply the channel changes.

Step 3: Configure Audio Sources

After restarting, you need to ensure your audio sources are capturing the surround sound signal.

  1. Go to the Audio tab in OBS Settings.
  2. Under Global Audio Devices, set Desktop Audio to the playback device you configured in Step 1.
  3. In the Audio Mixer dock on the main OBS screen, click the three dots (properties icon) next to your Desktop Audio source and select Advanced Audio Properties.
  4. Review the active channels to ensure that multi-channel signals are registering on the volume meters when surround sound media is playing.

Step 4: Configure Output and Encoder Settings

To export or stream the surround sound audio, your output settings must support multi-channel configurations.

For Recording:

  1. Go to Settings > Output.
  2. Set the Output Mode to Advanced, then select the Recording tab.
  3. Choose a container format that supports multi-channel audio, such as mkv or mp4.
  4. Set the Audio Encoder to AAC or Opus.
  5. Click on the Audio tab in the Output settings and ensure the audio bitrate for your active tracks is set to at least 256 Kbps or higher (higher bitrates are recommended to maintain quality across 6 or 8 channels).

For Streaming: